My second million

In my last net worth update I lamented that I had some ways to go before my next million and the thing that held me back was a delay in my initial salary. In one of my recent posts, I mentioned that I already received my initial salary so you may wonder what happened with that, have I fallen off the budget wagon…?

Thank you for keeping me accountable

Fortunately I did not fall off the wagon. I received a windfall and while deciding on how to allocate it (to shop or not to shop hehe) I must say that these net worth posts are a huge part of why I decided to park most of it in the bank in the meantime, instead of just spending it away on what I may later consider to be useless stuff. These posts keep me constantly conscious of where I am in my goal, up to the last centavo, as to keep me aware of how much spending is derailing me from additional X amount to my goal net worth.

Reason to continue despite relative anonymity

I realize that the longer I maintain this blog and these net worth updates, the more people in my circle may end up reading this, by accident or by design, and that as more time passes, the less “anonymity” I may have. Nevertheless, I see no reason to discontinue at the moment.

I started this net worth series that show my numbers primarily to keep myself accountable to an audience and to encourage financial literacy. Money is such a taboo topic in any culture but more so in the Philippines, where many closeted financially illiterate individuals remain to be so until their twilight years, when it’s already too late. This is also a primarily religious country where caring about your finances or saving for a rainy day is seen by many as an evil deed (i.e worshipping money). You can read more on that here.

These posts have indeed kept me accountable in so many ways. They’ve made me focus on my goal (my second million). They’ve been a clincher in many a shopping decision (to buy or not to buy that designer bag lol). Most of all, they’ve always realigned me to what must be priorities in life, which are simple, really: food, shelter, clothing. Most importantly, one must always value one’s health, because no money in the world is worth our health/life.

I’m no longer alone

It brings me great joy to see more Pinoy bloggers share their numbers in net worth or debt, it doesn’t matter as long as it encourages an attitude of financial openness and financial responsibility, especially in the personal finance community. These bloggers include Atty. Jill at Frugal Honey, Maven who’s a self-confessed corporate slave (and now a millionaire too), Menard who is a Pinoy US dollar millionaire before 50 living in the US, and recently, Izza at Savings Pinay. If you wish to see how bloggers worldwide are doing on their net worth, J Money has a detailed and updated database on that, sorted according to country, profession, age, personal circumstances (DINK, DIWK, SINK). (For more blogger recommendations, see my blogroll post).

EDIT: Neglected to add Jun Anatalio who shares his decamillion net worth as a simple-living Cebuano and former BPO worker.

As long as these net worth posts fulfill their purpose, they shall continue, unless I feel that my personal security is compromised. We shall see.

My net worth is

PhP 2,116,865.4 / USD 42,337

My liquidity is now better at 20+% but I may move some to stocks/ bonds soon, depending on how the political and investment climate pans out in the next few months. Things seem a bit shaky at the moment, which make cash an ideal place to park assets.

Looking back, I must say that the first million still felt the hardest to obtain. You’re starting out, sorting the financial mess that is your twenties with the recent graduation, entry-level job and just general feeling of being lost. Or was that just me? Haha.

This doesn’t mean that the road to the second million was a breeze though, but by then one would’ve established a habit of frugality and set on a budget, which one likely follows, making this journey less time and effort-intensive than the first one. Budgeting is like a muscle; keep doing it regularly enough and muscle memory helps you budget even with your eyes closed!

A long way to go before I FIRE

With liquidity at just 20% and retirement funds (stocks etc) at still infancy status at 15.29%, I have many years to go before I FIRE. Ideally, a huge buffer should be set for early retirement as minimal (social security or gsis) pension only kicks in at 60. So how will you support yourself until then? I have a set number in mind that I’ve already calculated to suffice for frugal husband and I to FIRE, after taking into account, inflation, desired cost of living, and estimated growth rate of personal retirement funds.

To reach that number I’ve set my sights on increasing liquidity and holding off on additional real estate purchases for some time. I’m going to experiment with increasing risk by slowly moving to an asset allocation of 35% cash and 35% equities (stocks etc). Alternatively, my next goal is to have an asset allocation of 35% cash and 35% equities. I wish to balance out my asset allocation and ease liquidity (cash is easily accessible in the event of an emergency / investing opportunity). Equities on the other hand, allow for faster growth (through dividends and capital appreciation).

This is a conservative allocation given my young age but it’s not set in stone. With regular income coming back in, I plan to get back to my monthly programming of regularly investing. We’ll see how the experiment goes.

Congratulations on your 2nd M, Ms. George!
People like you inspire me to do my best as well to achieve financial freedom.. and yes my first million too! 😀
I might also try computing my net worth and share it in my blog…but nahihiya pa ako sa amount. I still have a long way to go haha.